Making a Case for the Greatness of the Porsche 928

By Adam Pockross - November 2, 2015

Porsche 928

For a few highly evolved folks, the Porsche 928 is simply the best Porsche that was ever made. That’s a totally subjective stance, of course. But objectively speaking, it’s easily one of the most important, especially when you look at where the marque is today.

You certainly get that impression from reading Cheatsheet.com’s recent article entitled “Porsche 928: One of the Most Important Porsches Ever Built.”

40 some odd years, ago, for various reasons, Porsche planned on phasing out the rear-wheel drive, rear-engine 911. In its place, Porsche hoped to launch a new line of sports cars, starting with the “avant-garde,” front-engined V8 grand tourer, the 928 — aka the future.

Though the 911 had been Porsche’s bread and butter for a long while, that’s not to say it didn’t have issues. The 911 was a handful to drive, due to the ample engine’s placement behind the rear axle, oversteer overcame many an over-confident driver, and rumors abounded that U.S. safety regulations were going to ban rear-engine setups. So change (and disco) was in the air.

After falling short with the 914 and 924, at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show, Porsche debuted the 928:

“It had a front-mounted 4.5-liter V8 that produced 237 horsepower — not bad considering the 930 Turbo packed 253 — had 50/50 weight distribution, four-wheel disc brakes, and a fully-independent suspension, with the rear pivoting to aid in cornering (dubbed the Weissach Axle), preventing the unpredictable oversteer the 911 was infamous for. Inside, the cabin was a departure from other sports cars, with its integrated instrument cluster and a dash, console, and doors that blended to create a cockpit-style layout.”

At the Geneva show, the car – “the anti-911” — was a hit. And it would go on to win the 1978 European Car of the Year Award, the only sports car ever to win it up till that point. But in salesrooms, not so much. 911 purists rejected it. Traditionalists were put off by its unique design. And the 928 was priced higher than the BMW 6 Series and Mercedes SL-Class.

But after a while, the world would come to its senses. The 911 proved to have more resilience than the rumors, the 928’s radical styling became a bit less radical, and the followers – like the RX-7 and 300ZX – started popping up.

Alas, by the mid-‘90s, with Porsche in financial straits yet again, the 928 was phased out with the last model year in 1995. But Porsche hasn’t forgotten what they learned from the project, as you can see throughout the line-up today. “It may not have gotten a chance to evolve as long as the 911 did, but the car’s legacy is seen in every non rear-engined Porsche available today — and that’s every car in the lineup except the 911.”

There’s plenty more to learn about this all-important Porsche over at Cheatsheet, so head on over there, then let us know what you think on the forum.